Spain: Anti-LGBT incidents make up 40% of overall hate crimes
Anti-LGBT incidents make up almost 40% of all hate crimes in Spain, new statistics have revealed.
In the country that was recently reported the most accepting place to be homosexual by Pew Research, with 88% of Spaniards thinking that being gay should be accepted by society, homophobia is the most common initiation for hate crime, according to an Interior Ministry report.
Last year, 452 hate crimes in Spain were linked to sexuality or gender identity out of a total of 1,172 confirmed offences.
The most common attacks towards the victims included sexual violence and hateful threats, with 4% of the hate crimes being severely violent.
Out of the total 1,172 confirmed complaints to the authorities, almost 40% were linked to homophobia or transphobia. Hate crimes based on race reached a confirmed 381 complaints and attacks against the disabled reached 290.
A report by the European Agency for Fundamental Rights confirms that 60-90% of hate crimes are not even reported to the authorities by the victims.
Spain is known as one of the more LGBT-friendly countries in Europe, with the legalisation of same-sex marriage being almost a decade old.
In most of the 40 nations polled, half or more of the people said homosexuality was unacceptable. In seven countries, 90% or more said this.
